Anti-semitism cost us Barnet, Watson admits

TOM WATSON, Labour’s deputy leader, admitted yesterday that Jewish people had “sent us a message” after the party was punished by voters for its failure to tackle anti-semitism.

The north London borough of Barnet, Labour’s number one target, was won by the Tories after Jewish voters told Labour candidates “not this time”.

It came as Ken Livingstone, the former Labour mayor of London, repeated his claim that Adolf Hitler “collaborated” with Zionists. Mr Livingstone, who is suspended from the party because of previous comments linking Nazism to Zionism, admitted his comments might have been “damaging” for Labour’s chances.

Labour had high hopes of winning Barnet, which they have not controlled since its creation in 1964. No party had overall control and just two more seats would have secured it for them.

But with Jewish people making up 16 per cent of the electorate, it went to the Tories in a result that one losing Labour councillor said “should shame us”.

Adam Langleben said: “Every Jewish Labour household we visited, people said, ‘not this time’. Activists were being told this is a racist party, an anti-semitic party and doors were slammed in their faces.

“Mr Corbyn was supposed to come here for a victory speech. We want him to come to Barnet anyway, to apologise… so we can start the healing process.”

Mr Watson said: “There is no doubt the Jewish community have sent us a message.” Labour also lost two seats in Stamford West in Hackney, another London ward with a large Jewish population.

Activists were aghast when Mr Livingstone appeared on Sky News within hours to talk about Hitler again. He said: “Hitler wanted to get all of the Jews out of Germany and the Zionists wanted to move them all to create a Jewish state in Palestine and so they collaborated.”

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: “There are lots of voters, Jewish people in London, who don’t feel comfortable voting Labour.”